GOOGLE SHOPPING, FIND OUT HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR PRODUCTS

February 28, 2021

Google Shopping is an application developed by the company that gives us the best internet search engine, and that also has influence in the eCommerce area.

And although it is not an online store as such, it allows you to find items more easily and without entering the different virtual stores where they are.

But, more importantly, with this platform you can promote your products in the search engine’s SERPs, and here you can learn everything you need to know about it.

1. Create an account in Google Merchant Center

As expected, before you can access the benefits that Google Shopping offers, the first thing you must do is create an account in Google Merchant Center. It is enough to access from the search engine by typing the name mentioned above.

As for its configuration, it is achieved in an almost automated way and the same platform guides you in each step.

2. Optimize the photos of your merchandise or products

In essence, Google Shopping uses already uploaded product feeds to index them in SERP results. But, only use the featured photos of them, taken from the different places where they are.

For this reason, it is necessary that you optimize the images of the products on your website before promoting them through the platform.

This is because Shopping is a mostly visual medium, so the images of the items would be the fundamental element. These being decisive for future buyers to click.

To ensure a good quality of the feed, it is important that you consider the following aspects:

A neutral colored background, such as white, gray, or any light color.
Clear lighting
Clearly display the item you want to sell and on a correct scale.
Avoid blurry images.

3. Enter the data collected from your products in the Feed

Once the quality of your images is undeniable, it is time to add the data of your products in the feed. To do this, you must go to the tab on the left called “Products”, then to “Feed”, and finally to the blue “+” button.

Fill in the requested information regarding the country and the name of the new feed you want to create. Next, it will ask you to choose the way to enter the data of your products, which in this case will be in Google Sheets. In this option, you can upload a ready-made spreadsheet, or use a template from the Merchant Google Center and start from scratch.

Next, we will show you some of the mandatory data that you must include in the data file of your products if you decide to upload your own spreadsheet:

Unique product ID (recommended to use its SKU).
The title of the product.
The detailed description of the item.
Link of the page where it is indexed.
The URL of the main product photo.
Express product availability and match the source page.
Define the category to which each product belongs, taking into account the most relevant if it belongs to several.

In the event that you decide to use the template provided by Google Merchant Center, these categories will already be predetermined as columns to fill in.

4. Link Google Ads to your Google Shopping account

When you do a product search on Google, what you actually see is not quite results, but ads. That said, it is important that you know that, to promote your articles through this platform, you must pay.

That is, for your articles to appear as ads on Google, you must use Ads by linking it to the Google Merchant Center account.

This can be achieved through the three-dot menu in the upper right corner, by clicking on the “Account Linking” option. Now you just have to enter the ID of your Ads account and with that, you will have already completed this procedure.

5. Start a campaign in Shopping

Once your account is linked, you can enter it through the same Google Shopping platform. Thus, you can start a new ad campaign by selecting the option “Create Shopping Campaign” from the Ads section.

And as is customary in the ad platform, it only remains to put the name of the campaign, the country to which you want to sell and assign the daily budget. This would be the easiest and most direct way to perform this procedure.

Another way to create a new campaign in Google Merchant is through the main page of the platform, clicking on the blue “+” button.

6. Make offers within your campaign

During the configuration of this campaign, the Google Merchant Center will require you to configure it by placing a strategy, and to establish a budget.

But before this, you should know that these offers represent the way you pay Google for other people to see your products. It is also important to know that if you provide high-quality article data, your ad will get a high rating. The offer for Google Shopping is made up of three types:

CPC or cost per click, where you set your own maximum CPC for each banner.
Automatic bidding, where ROI and CPC require conversion tracking, as Google sets the appropriate value for each ad.
Maximize clicks, here Google Ads acts by placing the most convenient offer to obtain the most interactions.

Now, the second step is to establish the budget for the campaign, which Google will manage on a daily basis for a whole month. On the other hand, Google Merchant offers you two possible alternatives:

The standard plan, which would be the basic budget strategy.
And Accelerated, which means spending more quickly than the established budget.

Don't forget to schedule your ad campaign

The last configuration step is focused on the programming of your Google Shopping campaign. A very important phase, since here you will determine who will see your product ads and when it will happen.

The section referring to “Networks and Devices” should not adjust, so you can leave it as is.

However, in the next step you must determine the location or places where your ads will appear. Remember that the most advisable thing is to send them to your locality and to those places where it is possible to send them.

To finish, it only remains to adjust the start and end time of your campaign, choosing the most convenient times to display your ads or not.